Frameless garage door



Aug. 17, 1954 R. G. JOHANNSEN FRAMELESS GARAGE DOOR Filed March a, 1950Patented Aug. 17, 1954 UNITED STATES EATENT OFFICE :FRAMELESS GARAGEDOOR Russel G. Johannsen, Detroit, Mich.. assignor, by mesneassignments, to Johannsen & Taylor, Inc., Detroit, Mich., a corporationof Michigan Application March 8, 1950, Serial No. 148,330

Claims. 1

This invention relates to garage doors, and particularly toa garage doorof the frameless type.

Garage doors heretofore have been made of panels disposed eitherhorizontally or vertically, attached to a separately constructedrectangular frame to provide the necessary strength and rigiditythereto.

The presentinvention contemplates the formation of the panels for thedoor in a manner to incorporate the strength of a frame therewith whenthe panels are secured together. In the home size doors, three panelsare employed, a top and bottom panel which are identical, and a centralpanel which is similar to the top and bottom panels but which has likemating edges. Each of the three panels has V grooves formed therein tosimulate narrow panels and half V grooves are formed in the mating edgesof the three panels so thatsimilar V grooves are formed at the junctionof the panels, the joints of which are substantially invisible afterassembly. .A channe element is applied. .to each edge of the door andangularly disposedbracesconnect two corner gusset plates with a centralgusset plate at the top and bcttom'edges of thedoor. Sufficient rigidityand strength are provided by this construction which eliminates theframehereto provided.

Accordingly,-the-main objects of the invention are: to provide airameless type of garage door; to provide a garage door made of threepanels having like mating edges at the abutting portions and top andbottom edges which are formed at right angles; to form a joint between aplurality of panels on a door by providing at the mating edges half Vgrooves which form complete v grooves similar to the V grooves providedparallel thereto inwardly from the panel edges; to reinforce the sideedges of a door made up of plurality of horizontally disposed panels andvertically disposed channel elements which encompass the side edges andare welded thereto, and, in general, to provide a frameless type of doorwhich is simple in construction and economical of manufacture.

Other objects and features of novelty of the invention will hespecifically pointed out or will become apparent when referring, for abetter understanding of the invention, to the following descriptiontaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure l is a plan view of the inside surface of a irameless doorembodying features of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a broken, enlarged sectional view of the structure illustratedin Fig. 1, taken on the line 2-2 thereof, and

Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the structure illustrated in Fig. 1, takenon the line 3-3 thereof.

The door of the present invention may be made of any number of panelswhich may be disposed horizontally or vertically when joined together.The illustrated door, by way of example, is one used upon home garagesand is made of three panels, a top panel Iii, a central panel H, and abottom panel I2. The top and bottom panels l0 and 52 are of identicalconstruction, having a square corner it along one edge providing an edgeflange i l which is reversely bent at E5 and further reversely bent atIt to provide strength at the top and bottom edges of the door. Theinner edges of the panels it and iii are bent atan angle to provide aweb I! and further bent to provide a vertical web 58 and bent at rightangles to provide a horizontal flange l9 which is reversely bent at 2!and further reversely bent inwardly at 22 to provide strength to theedge of the'panel. The central panel H is similar to panels l0 and [2with the exception that both of the horizontal edges thereof areprovidedwith the angular web ii, the vertical flange IS, the horizontalflange l9 and the reversely bent flanges 2| and 22. The anuguar flangei'! and the vertical flange l8 form one-half of a V groove. The centralpanel is disposed between the two panels l0 and'IZ and the horizontalflanged portions is are then spot-welded together, as at 23, throughoutthe horizontal length thereof. The twohalf V grooves form a V groove 24which extends entirely across the face of the door. These grooves 24thus formed are similar to additional V grooves 2a which are provided inthe face of the panels It, I l and i2 equidistant apart from each otherand from the edges of the panels. With this construction, the two jointsbetween the three panels are entirely hidden from view as all of thegrooves 24 are similar in construction, breaking up the large face ofthe door and providing strength therefor.

Gusset plates 25 are secured to each lower corner of the door upon theflange portion it of the panels I2 and a gusset plate 26 is secured tothe flange portion Iii centrally of the top panel Hi. Angular-1ydisposed channel braces 27 are slotted at 28, as illustrated in Fig. 2,to receive the flange portions 25 at the joints between the panels ill,I l and 52, so that the top flanges 29 may rest thereon and bespot-welded thereto at 3!. The bottom flange 32 of the braces 27 restsupon the base of the V grooves 26% and is spot-welded thereto, as

illustrated at 33 in Fig. 2. The top flanges 29 extend under the gussetplates 25 and 26 and are spot-welded thereto at 34. Channel elements 35are provided at each side of the assembled panels I0, II and I2,extending thereover to rest upon the outer face of the panels and uponthe flange portions 2| thereof to which they are spot-welded. Thechannels also extend over the gusset plates 25 at the bottom and arespot-welded thereto.

The spacing of the flange portion [5 of the panels I 0 and I2 may beslightly less than the spacing of the flanges 2! at the mating edges ofthe panels, from the front face of the panels so that the channel willextend over the gusset plate 25. However, sufficient clearance may beprovided in the width of the channel to permit the flange to extend overthe gusset plate and be deflected to engage the flange portions 21 alongthe mating edges of the panels and to be welded thereto. A plate 36 maybe applied to the flange 2| of the panels ll and i2 midway between theside edges of the door for supporting the lock and hardware whichlatches the door at each side edge, not herein illustrated in detail.

The door thus constructed is exceedingly light in weight, extremelyrigid and economical of construction in view of the elimination of theseparate frame heretofore employed and in using like top and bottompanels and I2. Advantage is also provided in having a central panelwhich is similar to the top and bottom panels, the only difference beingthat both of the horizontal edges of the panel are of like construction.identical to the mating edge of the top and bottom panels. The assemblyof the door is exceedingly simple as it only requires a simple fixturefor receiving the three panels for spot-welding along the mating edgesand for applying the angular braces 2'! and the gusset plates 25 and 26thereto, after which the side channel members 35 are applied and securedin position along with the plate 36. The door thus constructed ispleasing in appearance in view of the break in the face thereof by the Vgrooves 24 which are similar to the resulting grooves 24 at the jointbetween the panels, which thereby eliminates the unsightly appearance ofa joint across the face of the panels. The V grooves also providestrength to the face of the panels.

What is claimed is:

1. A garage door comprising a plurality of substantially like panelsjuxtaposed in co-planar relationship, each of said panels havingparallel rearwardly extending flanges at the upper and lower edgesthereof, said rearwardly extending flanges terminating in edge flangesparallel to said panels, means joining adjacent rearwardly extendingflanges, said joined rearwardly extending flanges having joined parallelplanar portions perpendicular to said panels and having said parallelplanar portions attached to said panels by means of angularly disposedflange portions extending rearwardly from said panels at obtuse anglesthereto, said contiguous angularly disposed portions defining V-groovestherebetween, and side frame members secured along the entire side edgesof the juxtaposed panels perpendicular to said flanges, said side framemembers and the outermost rearwardly disposed flanges and edge flangescompleting the frame for said door.

2. A garage door as set out in claim 1 wherein each panel containsadditional V-grooves spaced equidistant from each other and from theedges of the panel, said grooves being parallel to the edges of thepanel.

3. A garage door as set out in claim 1 wherein said side frame membersare of channel shape, the web of such channel being of sufficient widthto receive the edge flanges and faces of said panels.

4. A garage door as set out in claim 1 wherein cross brace means isprovided for said panels.

5. A garage door as set out in claim 1 wherein said panels are three innumber.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 1,240,634 Williams Sept. 18, 1917 1,266,301 Murphy May 14:,1918 1,410,539 Wine Mar. 21, 1922 1,885,145 Shafer Nov. 1, 19321,938,634 McWilliams Dec. 12, 1933 2,045,291 Busse June 23, 19362,200,240 Gilpin May 14, 1940 2,226,681 Willoughby Dec. 31, 1940 FOREIGNPATENTS Number Country Date 17,830 Great Britain Sept. 19, 1894 501,158Great Britain Feb. 22, 1939

